Yesterday was a good day, with some very interesting presentations. The day kicked off with a showcase of MS Research, by Alexander Brändle who works at the research center in Cambridge. The things he showed us were just plainly awesome! I could never have imagined how far research already went. They think 10 years ahead, and the interfaces he showed us, the technology… damn. I’ll cross-check first what I can write about it because all these prototypes… I don’t want to take any risks. This is without any doubt the best presentation I’ve seen so far. After this, there were some slightly more boring presentation about CPE and Response Management and also an IT Showcase.

Neither of those actually fitted for me to provide me with ‘new’ information I could use in my current role, but on the other hand, you never know where you might end up, so maybe -futuristically spoken- they might come in handy somewhere over time. At least now I have a more detailed view on how things work and what is possible. The two other keynotes that got 100% of my attention again -instead of 90, of course :) - were the SMSG Overview by Tim El-Hady, an Egyptian UK’er. He brought his story very well and explained a lot of the SMSG cluster within Microsoft. I liked that, even though I’m currently not in it. The ‘last but not least’ keynote of the day was about CompHot.

Dave Barnsley came to tell us about what CompHot can do for us. CompHot is like ‘the wise librarian’ within Microsoft. If you need support to close a deal, if you need to blow away the competition with showcases and information… just drop a line to these guys and they’re on it. That’s very good to know, especially because they have a very rich archive stacked with information on dozens of cases. If I don’t look at it ’saleswise’, like for instance when I need help on a Microsoft VS X (random other brand), and I need to have detailed information to set foot in a market segment or collect background data to prepare presentations, it’s very good to know you can escalate to these guys. It’s like a backup parachute.

The evening ended with a big dinner, seeing it was ‘our last night’ at MS 101. Straight after dinner, Charbel El Fakhoury gave a motivational speech about ‘why Microsoft’ by telling his own story. Charbel came a long way and established a lot in the Middle East. He started a lot of subs and actually helped Microsoft to set foot in a region that is constantly subjected to some sort of conflict. For instance, Charbel is from Beirut. You can imagine how hard it must’ve been to kick off business in a land that is still recovering from a civil war.

I was getting really really really tired due to lack of sleep these last few days, so I took a cab to the hotel and after a nice hot tub I slept for over 8 hours. It felt like I was on a holiday. Ready for a new day!